“Chained to Jobs they hate by health coverage they can’t afford to lose”
A humorous take the serious problem of job lock. HT: Carolyn’s Blog
Category: Uncategorized
Rushing to produce a Swine Flu Vaccine: A Cautionary Tale
The Washington Post recounts a cautionary tale concerning a hasty roll-out of the flu vaccine this fall. “As U.S. health officials consider rolling out a plan to inoculate the nation against swine flu in the next several months, they are haunted by the events that unfolded the last time the government stepped in to head…
19 Billion Reasons to Increase Health IT Investment
Marketplace discusses the uptick in Health IT investment. One reason for the surge is the $19 billion in the Obama stimulus package to encourage doctors to get up to speed using electronic medical records. Will this money be spent effectively? Who knows. I did note last week that 60% of Indian hospitals have HIT compared…
The Economics of Free Surgical Masks
El Universal reports that Mexican police have arrested 13 individuals accused of selling surgical masks on the street. Should the government arrest individuals selling surgical masks? Any capitalist would in general support the ability of individuals to trade cash for the goods they desire. However, the case of the surgical mask may be different. Surgical…
Swine Flu Update: Tuesday
Where has the swine flu been detected? A map of the H1N1 Swine Flu lists all confirmed, unconfirmed, and negative cases of the swine flu around the world. Mexico City has decided to close all restaurants in the capital, only allowing them to serve food ‘to go.’ Restaurant associations are asking for the restaurant ban to be lifted.…
Economics 2.0: What caused the housing market boom
What caused the housing boom? Did people really believe that a median home price of over $500,000 in San Diego were realistic? Were people caught up in the dot-com boom really rational? Economics 2.0, reviews a paper saying that rational people will often buy assets that they themselves believe are overvalued. Why? Let’s say I believe that…
Nature vs. Nuture: Yemeni edition
Experiment: Airlift 50,000 Yemini Jews to Israel and randomly place them with Israeli families. Finding: Nuture matters. “We find that children who were placed in a good environment (a home with good sanitary conditions, in a city, and outside of an ethnic enclave) were more likely to achieve positive long-term outcomes. They were more likely to…
Economics 2.0: Does paying parents to be on time increase punctuality?
I recently read an interesting book titled Economics 2.0. The book has a Freakonomics pedigree, but reads more like a newspaper or a blog. The benefit of this format is that the authors are able to review a wide variety of economic studies. The downside is there isn’t any real thesis. The book is basically just: “here…
Comparison of Pharmacists and Primary Care Providers as Immunizers
This week my paper on Pharmacists as vaccinators was accepted for publication by the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Benefits. Co-authored with John Fontanesi, Jan Hirsch, Sarah Lorentz, and Debra Bowers, “Comparison of Pharmacists and Primary Care Providers as Immunizers” examines whether pharmacists are productive and efficient vaccinators. The abstract of the paper is below. The…
Cavalcade of Risk – Second Anniversary Edition
The Second Anniversary edition of the Cavalcade of Risk has been posted at the always informative InsureBlog. Two especially interesting posts from Cato-at-Liberty and Colorado Health Insurance Insider discuss the individual–compared to the group–health insurance market.